The disclosure relates generally to a pad assembly and more particularly to a floor polishing or grinding pad assembly.
It is known to use fibrous pads for polishing and grinding floors within industrial or commercial buildings. Such polishing or grinding pads are ideally suited for use on concrete, terrazzo, and natural (e.g., marble), engineered and composite stone floors. Examples of such pads and the powered machines used to rotate such can be found in the following U.S. patents and patent publication numbers: 2011/0300784 entitled “Flexible and Interchangeable Multi-Head Floor Polishing Disk Assemby” which was invented by Tchakarov et al. and published on Dec. 8, 2011; U.S. Pat. No. 9,174,326 entitled “Arrangement For Floor Grinding” which issued to Ahonen on Nov. 3, 2015; U.S. Pat. No. 6,234,886 entitled “Multiple Abrasive Assembly and Method” which issued to Rivard et al. on May 22, 2001; U.S. Pat. No. 5,605,493 entitled “Stone Polishing Apparatus and Method” which issued to Donatelli et al. on Feb. 25, 1997; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,054,245 entitled “Combination of Cleaning Pads, Cleaning Pad Mounting Members and a Base Member for a Rotary Cleaning Machine” which issued to Coty on Oct. 8, 1991. All of these patents and the patent publication are incorporated by reference herein.
Notwithstanding, improved floor polishing and grinding performance is desired. Furthermore, some of these prior constructions exhibit uneven wear in use which prematurely destroy the pads or cause inconsistent polishing or grinding.
In accordance with the present invention, a floor polishing or grinding pad assembly is provided. In one aspect, a polishing or grinding pad assembly employs a flexible pad, a reinforcement layer or ring, and multiple floor-contacting tools such as abrasive disks. In another aspect, the reinforcement layer includes a central hole through which a flexible pad is accessible and the pad at the hole has a linear dimension greater than a linear dimension of one side of the adjacent reinforcement layer. In yet another aspect, the reinforcement layer includes a wavy or undulating internal edge shape. A further aspect includes an inner ring edge having radially extending slots between pairs of radially enlarged tool mounting peaks. Still another aspect includes an insulator or spacer between a head of an abrasive tool and a reinforcement ring. A method of making and using a polishing or grinding pad assembly is also provided.
The present pad assembly is advantageous over traditional devices. For example, the present pad assembly advantageously allow greater floor contact with the pad within a centralized area generally surrounded by the disks, which is expected to improve polishing or grinding performance. Furthermore, the present pad assembly is considerably easier to install on a floor polishing or grinding machine than many prior constructions. The wavy, undulating, or alternating slotted and peaked inner edge of the ring allows different flexure characteristics during floor polishing or grinding, which also creating aesthetically pleasing ornamental designs. Moreover, the insulator or spacer feature reduces heat transfer from the abrasive tools to the reinforcement ring to reduce ring-to-pad adhesive degradation. Additional advantages and features of the present invention will be readily understood from the following description, claims and appended drawings.